[ { "id": 207163, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1974", "page_number": 234, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "228 \n\nNOTES AND QUERIES \n\nThe few houses on the southern side of Boundary Street, just completed for the Credit Foncier d'Extreme-Orient, were the only buildings around; further at the junction of this street with Prince Edward Road was 'Mignon', a small bungalow occupied by Miss Santos; the rest was either carved out of Chinese gardens or totally undeveloped. Across what was later on to become La Salle Road was a garden lot of some three acres which Brother Aimar had acquired lately from Mrs. Chan Kwing Min, the wife of the former Waichow war-lord [the present site of La Salle Primary School]; there was a small Chinese house on the grounds, in which the Canadian Sisters of Our Lady of the Angels, newly arrived in the Colony, resided temporarily. There was not a single house standing on the southern side of Prince Edward Road. \n\nThe locality was admirably situated, equally distant from Kowloon City and Kowloon Tong: two abundant reservoirs for a Chinese school population; and Homantin, where a large number of Portuguese families then resided. \n\nThe Hong Kong architectural firm of Messrs. Little, Adams and Wood was engaged to draw up plans. This was the same firm that had designed not long before the nearby Diocesan Boys' School. In their plans for the new College they incorporated features of ecclesiastical architecture that we do not find in the D.B.S. building, such as columned porticos and a domed chapel. The dome is one of the most interesting architectural features to be found in Kowloon. The Great Hall was said to be modelled after the Theatre Royal of Naples, and the mushroom columns in the open area under the Great Hall reminds one of the pillars under the demonstration building of the Medical Faculty in Paris. The buildings were designed to accommodate 700 pupils, 350 of these being Portuguese boys living in Kowloon, and as Brother Aimar remarked at the Foundation Stone Laying, “We thought it only right to provision, as in St. Joseph's, for an equal number of boys of Chinese parentage and for a boarding department.\" (South China Morning Post, Nov. 5, 1930.) \n\nThough the land was bought in 1924, the plans for the building were not approved until 1929. The following year Governor Sir William Peel laid the foundation stone. The building was first occupied for classes in December, 1931, and the following month", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207398, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 166, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "158\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nthought fit to fight was discharged from hospital, but there must have been many of those manning the mainland defences whose legs felt weak and shaky following the fever and anaemia of the disease as they covered the hilly and terribly uneven country they were called on to defend,\n\nThe news from Europe, North Africa and the United Kingdom during 1940 and the first part of 1941 was very bad, while the stories of the German advances in Russia after June 1941 added to the general depression. In October 1941, two battalions of Canadian infantry, the Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada, disembarked in Hong Kong. With these came a number of Canadian Army Medical Officers, with Major John Crawford in charge, and two Canadian Army Nursing Sisters. The sight of these strongly built young men was momentarily, and quite irrationally comforting, but this feeling was soon replaced by astonishment that anyone should have dreamed that reinforcements of this order could possibly have altered the situation. In the event the Japanese attacked before the poor Canadians, who were not even accompanied by their transport, had time to settle down and they merely added to the numbers of casualties incurred and prisoners taken by the enemy. In February 1941 it might have been agreed that there were no ships available to withdraw the troops from Hong Kong, but in October of the same year ships were found to bring in more.\n\nI have chronicled my own thoughts on the situation in Hong Kong in the years leading up to December 1941 only to give some idea of the position as it appeared to one individual and as a background to an account of the events which followed. I do not know that these thoughts were shared by many others though it would be strange if they were not. There was certainly no defeatist spirit abroad and the general feeling seemed to be one of some confidence in our ability to hold the Japanese for a time. I imagine that many shared my own feeling in 1941 that since I could not change the situation I would have to put up with it. And so, on the morning of 8 December 1941, Dr. J.W. Anderson, who had most generously shared his house with me, and I stood at Magazine Gap and had a spectacular grandstand view of the short Japanese air attack on Kai Tak airport by the end of which no British planes remained able to fly. Together he, now a Major R.A.M.C., and I moved into", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207452, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 220, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "212\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nwhich swept through the hospital from time to time. If any instrument did survive it was not taken to Kowloon when the hospital moved there in March 1945. Placed in a similar position in a hospital today I would never run such a risk again.\n\nThe foregoing account shows a remarkable naivete on my part. The guilelessness of some of our men was quite as remarkable. I recall examining the diary of a soldier who died in Bowen Road before handing his belongings over to someone authorised to receive them. The diary had many references to world events which had clearly been obtained by wireless. I thought it wise to destroy these references at once, for if discovered they would have led directly back to an illicit receiver as the source which I judged to have been sited in a P.O.W. camp.\n\nThe Japanese allowed us to receive and read copies of an English language paper called the Hongkong News, which was published in the Colony. My notes show that we began to receive three or four copies of this paper daily from October 1942. I circulated these copies to each ward in the hospital and to all staff, but I am sorry I did not preserve any in my own records. The news in the paper was, I recall, quite accurate in describing places where events of importance in the war were taking place. I cannot say whether all events were recorded in this fashion. The treatment of the stories in the paper was, of course, wholly from the Japanese angle, and the result was to create in us prisoners a mounting sense of the victories they were achieving. We could and did discount many of the stories, and we had in the hospital a number of school-type atlases which were never taken away from us, and from the place names we could at least trace where events were taking place in the war as they happened. At first, this local paper was issued to us free, and from time to time supplies were stopped when it was not difficult to deduce that the issues that had been withheld contained news unfavourable to the Japanese.\n\nAUGUST\n\nDECEMBER 1942\n\nThese five months were for the hospital the worst period of our imprisonment. On 1 August 1942 there were 245 patients attended by twelve officers on the staff, not all of whom were medical, sixty-five other ranks including six Royal Engineers plus one civil engineer, seventeen nursing sisters Q.A.I.N.M.S. and Canadian", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207500, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 268, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "260\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\nfeet to help aircraft expected to drop supplies the next day. The sign had to be yellow, and the Japanese straw sleeping mats called tatami were used to construct the sign. Some huts in the Indian camp were blown down. We got Tokunaga and Saito to turn over St. Teresa's Hospital to us while we helped also by housing a number of people in our Assembly Hall. Our staff of rice grinders had stopped functioning and we had to use R.A.M.C. orderlies to help. We had been hoping that our sisters would have arrived but a party of them had apparently missed a ferry connection. A nearby typhoon accompanied by heavy rain caused the air drop of supplies to be postponed but the weather moderated and our marooned visitors were able to leave. Two women members of a religious order arrived from St. Teresa's Hospital distressed that a Japanese officer had disturbed them the previous night and I took them to the Indian camp where I arranged the move of patients and staff through Indian Army officers to St. Teresa's Hospital and I set about compiling lists of patients from all centres in order to classify those needing treatment and special transportation when relief arrived. We had a number of Canadian officers to lunch and Major Crawford was a welcome visitor later when he came to see the Canadian patients in hospital. He himself seemed in reasonably good shape by the standards of those days.\n\nIn consultation with Colonel Field certain difficulties over medical arrangements in some camps were remedied. The sisters in St. Teresa's Hospital were keeping three rooms for their own use and the Japanese were moving out. The St. Teresa's staff and patients would be fed from the Indian camp and we were now getting news over the radio which suggested that a relief force might arrive about the end of the month. An emergency operation was performed in our hospital on a patient admitted from camp. The disease was the same as that in the case of the patient whom I reported earlier had been received by us in Bowen Road in 1942 after ten days illness, when he died before surgery could be undertaken. Early surgery would have saved this patient and operation was totally successful in the case of the patient we had just admitted. Staff and patients were again being allowed out locally.\n\nBy 26 August I had occupied the office which Saito had used, and in St. Teresa's Hospital the sisters were now content with the arrangements while they also had access to houses at No. 317 Prince Edward Road, Major Evans was in charge here with Captain", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207503, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 271, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n263\n\nhad taken over the civil administration for the time being. The Admiral cheered us all up by saying that his hospital ship could take 600 patients and he had asked for another hospital ship as well. A Canadian warship, the Prince Rupert, took some Canadians and all our sisters off to supper in the ship. I worked up to 2.30 a.m. preparing lists for the use of our Military Headquarters in Sham Shui Po and also the details of our hospital patients awaiting evacuation.\n\nOn 31 August a naval doctor arrived as a liaison officer and I called on Surgeon-Captain Willoughby the P.M.O. in the hospital ship Oxfordshire. Some tough-looking marines commandeered transport and we transferred 101 patients to the hospital ship at once. At this time my diary records that we had ample food but I was dead tired and the P.M.O. very kindly asked me to stay in the Oxfordshire as he seemed to think I needed a rest. This was most considerate of him but there was still much to be done. Willoughby wanted the Q.A. sisters to sail also in the Oxfordshire with the patients, but Miss Dyson objected strongly and rightly won her point. The rest of the patients embarked in the hospital ship also and we provided case notes for all such patients. A Group-Captain R.A.F. came to the hospital to take it over for R.A.F. use, but our army sisters remained with us to their, and our, delight. A very senior R.A.F. combatant officer took some joy telling me that those of us who had wives at home were in for some nasty shocks for most of these had gone badly astray during the war. He did not say how their husbands had conducted themselves.\n\nThe Indian Hospital seemed to be well under control and Major Evans told me he had 314 patients in hospital, about 85% of whom had manifestations of pellagra, and I was able to help by supplying some drugs.\n\nThe ship's P.M.O. Willoughby advised the Admiral that the Oxfordshire should go direct to the United Kingdom to avoid having to tranship patients in Manila, and the ship thereupon accepted another 90 patients and was replaced by the New Zealand hospital ship, Monganui, of which the P.M.O. was Bennett. On 3 September I crossed the harbour and recovered all my buried records from Bowen Road, and I went from there to Shau Ki Wan where I found no trace of the possessions of any of our men who had been killed at the army medical store near there. They had been buried in craters behind the Salesian. I could not get transport", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207529, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1975", "page_number": 297, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\nAttached to Staff -- Table 2\n\nRfm Archibald\n\nPrivate Rfm Baxter\n\nCambon\n\nPrivate Caruso\n\nRfm Davidson\n\nPrivate Frankiewicz\n\nPrivate Kashton\n\nPrivate Kohut\n\nRfm Woodridge\n\nCorporal Young\n\nRfm Snively\n\nO.S. French\n\nQ.M.S. Hamlen\n\nB.S.M. Lobban\n\nC.S.M. Collings\n\nSergt. Lockie\n\nCorporal Carter\n\nP.O. Waardenborg\n\nCanadian Army\n\nR.N. R.A.S.C. R.A.\n\nH.K.V.D.C.\n\nR. Scots\n\nR. Sigs.\n\nR. Netherlands Navy\n\nAppendix \"D\"\n\nRoll of QAIM.N.S. and Canadian Nursing Sisters, British Military Hospital, Bowen Road (Incomplete)\n\nMiss E. M. B. Dyson\n\nMiss Mirian Beaman\n\nLieut (Miss) Kay Christie - Canadian Service\n\nMiss Gwendelene Colthorpe\n\nMiss Mary Curry\n\nMiss Freda Davis\n\nMiss Molly Gordon\n\nMiss Brenda Morgan (Killed)\n\nMiss Margaret North\n\nMiss Kathleen Thompson\n\nMiss Daphne Van Wart\n\nLieut (Miss) May Waters Canadian Service\n\nMiss Joan Whiteley\n\n289\n\nNotes:--\n\n1. To my great regret I have not got the names of the members of the Hongkong Auxiliary Nursing Service.\n\n2. The two members of the Canadian Service were repatriated to Canada in November 1943.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208643, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n73\n\nand soon the Holy Sacrifice is being celebrated on four makeshift altars, each of us taking his turn. After Mass, Father Troesch manages to get a little fire going in our kitchen and soon we have a cup of coffee and a dish of oatmeal. We have already been informed that the Japanese authorities will give us rice, meat, vegetables, tea, salt, and sugar—all of which will be strictly rationed and that we may be allowed to purchase other foods, such as fish and vegetables from hawkers who will come into the Camp. We are to have two meals a day, from the Camp kitchen, now merely a large rice caldron set up on some cement blocks in an area-way on the ground floor of our Block. Our cooks in this general kitchen seem to be some stranded American sailors, whose captain scuttled his ship when the war began.\n\nAs we take stock of our surroundings, we find that there are already some two hundred Americans here, and more expected. Some of these who arrived early began, with typical American aggressiveness, to clean up the place, and when we arrived, our rooms were in a very presentable state. In the other Blocks, there are over a thousand British, and more arriving, in trucks and buses, with more or less baggage. We likewise find five Maryknoll Sisters in Block \"G\". These are the Holy Spirit School staff, who in the beginning of hostilities had been evacuated to the Queen Mary Hospital, where they also served as nurses. The Japanese have taken over the Queen Mary Hospital, also all the other British Hospitals in the Colony and the staffs are rapidly being brought to Stanley. Our sick, Father Bauer and the two Brothers, have also arrived in Camp, Father Bauer being not much improved. In the course of this afternoon, nine Canadian Immaculate Conception Sisters arrived, and were given quarters in one of the British Blocks. We suppose the Kowloon contingent of Maryknoll Sisters will soon appear as well, along with Father Feeney. We are saving a cot for him.\n\nImmediately upon our vacating the House, the Japanese Gendarmerie moved in, and at night, we can see a few lights in the building.\n\nJanuary 22nd—A call for able-bodied seamen on deck for manual labor; some to help in the kitchen, cutting wood and preparing food, others for carrying baggage of new arrivals, and others are set to work carrying cement blocks for the construction of a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208649, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 106, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n79\n\n8-Sunday Masses, as usual, with Fathers Keelan, Bauer and Charles Murphy officiating. It rained in the afternoon, but a fair crowd attended Rosary, Litany and private Benediction at St. Stephen's Great Hall; Bishop O'Gara spoke. Seventy Communions in the morning at Masses. An attempt is to be made to start some sort of school tomorrow for the children, but with the lack of desks, chairs and books, not much can be done. The Sisters also plan a catechism class. So far, we have five Maryknoll Sisters in Camp, as also nine Canadian Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, but at five this afternoon during a drizzle, some 18 more Maryknoll Sisters, with Sister Paul at their head, arrived by truck, with bag and baggage as only Sisters know how to travel. As the American Blocks were pretty well filled up, temporary quarters were found for them in one of the British blocks. They find two or three rooms at their disposal, and the 18 promptly unroll their blankets and stretch out on the floor, for the night. The Portuguese and Chinese Sisters remain in Kowloon, but not in their own convent, which has long since been taken over by the Japanese military as a hospital. The Blessed Sacrament is reserved temporarily in the Maryknoll Sisters' apartment in the American block. Maryknoll again wins a softball match.\n\n9-Mr. Gullinan, former Hong Kong Police sergeant and a good friend of ours, goes to Tweed Bay Hospital for treatment. He had been in the Queen Mary Hospital for some months previous to the war. The American Community meets at 2.00 p.m. in the Club House Rooms and hear various reports read. The question of bank accounts in the Hong Kong banks came up and it seems the Japanese authorities have offered each one with a bank account the sum of $50.00 for his food. This offer was refused by the Americans. Our newly-built kitchen finally opened.\n\n10-The blackout is over and we again have electric lights in the evening. Today also there is a change in our meal hours. The first repast is 9.30, with a cup of soup at 12.30 and the second meal at 5.00 p.m. It has turned cold and rainy and our meager rations of rice and fixings leave us hungry. A robbery is reported in the Dutch quarters.\n\n11-Another attempt to open a canteen in the American Club, and each person is limited to the purchase of one article. As there wasn't very much, the supply was soon sold out. One could buy", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208673, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 130, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n103\n\nCanadian Sisters having prepared them. The entertainment sponsored by the British for tonight was called off by the authorities for no apparent reason. It does seem as if the Americans are favored just a bit in this Camp by the Japanese or at least the British get more knocks. Mr. Bennett, American, chosen to act as purchasing agent for our allotment of food, goes to Hong Kong and on his return announces that while in the city he got himself married.\n\n10 Sunday. As usual. There was no fish for tiffin, it having been rejected as unfit for consumption. It is bruited abroad that non-American wives of repatriates will not be allowed to return to America because of lack of space on the vessels, but preferential treatment will be given to Chinese-Americans. A movie tonight at St. Stephen's, and quite a good one, with a few cartoons.\n\n11— At an American communal meeting, Messrs. Bourne, Rankin and Stanton were elected Chairman, Vice-Chairman and Treasurer respectively, to take the place of those resigned. American patrol resumed, but entirely voluntary.\n\n12— A Russian orchestra arrived in Camp today, and we thought for a while that we were going to have a concert, but it did not materialize. Father Meyer is still experimenting with his bread, and it is now much better. Canteen opens again.\n\n13— Sister Paul advises that 16 of the Maryknoll Sisters now in Camp be repatriated; with 3, Sisters Clement, De Ricci and St. Dominic, as third nationals, to stay in Hong Kong. The rest will remain in Camp for the time being.\n\n15— Ascension Day. Masses as on Sunday. Brother Anthony is indisposed again. Father Benson at length is able to leave the hospital. He had a very long stay within its confines. In the American Blocks we now have had, for some little time, a diet kitchen operating to take care of convalescents and children. This does not mean that the convalescents get any different or better food, but it is more carefully and tastily cooked. Many cannot stomach the ordinary white rice and in this kitchen it is browned first and then cooked.\n\nA Mr. Engdall, member of the American Consular staff, died suddenly in Camp, as a result of a fall. Only a very few from our Camp were allowed to accompany the body to the cemetery, Bishop O'Gara and Father Toomey being among the number, as Mr.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208679, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 136, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 \n\n109\n\n20- Another community meeting but no further developments on repatriation. At 11 o'clock this morning we were agreeably surprised to learn that Sister Paul and Sister Corazon were on \"The Hill\" and that we could go up and see them. Again Sister Paul moved the adamant hearts of the Japanese and secured permission to enter the Camp to say goodbye to her departing Sisters. We learn that our own names have been handed in to the Foreign Office in Hong Kong for release from the Camp, and our hopes are high. We also learn that Father Tennien is in Chungking, and that Father Briggs and Father Hater are both quite ill. Since Sister Paul and her Sisters have been in Hong Kong, we have been enabled to receive weekly parcels of foodstuffs, and this has helped a great deal. For some weeks a league of softball has been in progress, and today the last game of the season was played between the British and Americans, the score being 15 to 6 in favor of the latter. A Stanley Cup was fabricated by Camp artisans and presented to the winners.\n\n22-The first anniversary of our newly ordained Maryknollers, and they enjoy a Camp lunch at the Maryknoll Sisters' apartments at 7:00 p.m. The repatriation ship, the Asama Maru has been further delayed. Due to some circumstance or other, our rice ration on the 23rd and 24th was very meager, but Father Meyer came to the rescue with his toasted rice which he has been saving for such a rainy day.\n\n25-Rumor hath it that our papers or forms are now on “The Hill,” and that we may get final word any day now to pack up and leave for Hong Kong. Mr. Gunn, an American, and seven others, British and Portuguese, are advised they may leave Camp tomorrow.\n\n26-We were delighted today to receive a visit from His Excellency, Bishop Valtorta, who asked permission to come out and say goodbye to the repatriates. He could remain but a short time, and bade the rest of us to have hope, as he felt we would be released in due time. He is also trying to secure the release of the Canadian Sisters. The Asama Maru is now scheduled to leave on the 30th, the repatriates going on board the 29th. The British are still incredulous about repatriation of the Americans. There is now some talk about possible repatriation of British women and children and old men, but nothing definite.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208680, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 137, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "110\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\n27-Medical inspection of repatriates at 2:00 p.m. and preliminary inspection of baggage in rooms at 11:00 a.m., so it is beginning to look as if the good ship Asama Maru does mean business, after all!\n\n28-Sunday. There were no public Masses this morning in the Club Chapel, as that public room was reserved by the authorities for inspection of the baggage of the repatriates. Some baggage was also inspected at the same time just in front of our American Blocks. All bags and suitcases and bundles had to be put in a line and opened for the inspecting gendarmes as they passed along the line. After all, the inspection was not very strict. The baggage was then taken away in trucks to the small pier jutting out into Stanley Bay where, evidently, embarkation will take place. Since we could not have our regular public Masses in the main chapel, we had to be content with three Masses said in the Maryknoll Sisters, Canadian Sisters and in the Dutch apartments. In the afternoon as well we had to have Benediction in another garage just behind the American Club. At Stanley pier, we notice three small launches and some lighters, which are no doubt awaiting the arrival of the Asama Maru. All the Americans on the qui vive these days, and wondering when and if the good repatriation ship will put in an appearance.\n\n29—Maryknoll Foundation Day for all and Departure Day for some. As we arose, we scanned the horizon for signs of the Asama Maru, but there was no sign of her. However, along towards noon, she hove in sight and proceeded to Stanley Bay, where she anchored off shore about a mile distant. It was a thrilling sight, especially for the departants, and they were all wondering what kind of accommodations they were going to get, and what kind of food. After the ship dropped anchor no time was lost, and early in the afternoon the repatriates, about three hundred from the Stanley Camp, and some sixty direct from the city, went aboard the ship by launch. These sixty Americans from the city were bankers and banks' other officials who were allowed to remain at their posts, but who were practically interned in their own quarters. Some forty Americans are remaining in Camp, some of whom, including us, hope to get out to Hong Kong one of these days. Of this number, half are Maryknollers, including 15 priests, one Brother and 4 Maryknoll Sisters. Since we again lose our cooking squad, Father Meyer jumps into the breach and takes over, preparing our supper, which", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208705, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46\n\n135\n\nmany of our friends were on the wharf to see us off, and promptly at twelve noon we pulled away from the bund. The day before, while at Bethany, we saw a large liner of the Asama Maru class, slowly enter the harbor, and wondered what it portended. The next day, as we left the harbor for Macao and Kwangchauwan, this majestic ship, painted a war-gray, was still in the harbor, but just as we started, it also got underway and our ship had to slow her engines so that the liner could pass us on her way to sea. Ranged on her decks we could see the familiar military uniform of the Canadian soldiers who were, no doubt, being taken to some other internment camp outside of Hong Kong.\n\nA few hours' run brought us to Macao where we met Sister Paul and made some visits, the first of which was to the Maryknoll Sisters' new orphanage for homeless and destitute children. It was quite a sight to see 400 little tots making away with bowl after bowl of rice, furnished by the kindness of the Portuguese Government. We then called on the Jesuits, formerly of Hong Kong, who had gone to Macao to open a school for boys, and at the Seminary, and the next day at noon pulled out of the Macao fairway for Kwangchauwan, a run of some twenty hours. By this time Bishop Paschang and the Kongmoon priests, Frs. Paulus, Smith and North, had already slipped back into \"Free China.\"\n\nTravelling on an enemy ship in wartime made us naturally a little apprehensive. Some of the passengers told us of the occasional presence of submarines in this area, and we hoped that we would not meet any, even if they were from our homeland. However, we reached Kwangchauwan the next morning safely at 10 o'clock, and went ashore to the French Procure where we met the Procurator, Father Lebas and Father Moran, a Jesuit from Hong Kong, assisting him. With their assistance, we arranged for our travel inland. At Kwangchauwan, we met some of our other Hong Kong friends, one of whom was the wife of Andrew Tse of the Clover Flower shop, and Father Downs baptized her baby, Teresa Elizabeth.\n\nAt Kwangchauwan, Father Toomey left us to proceed to Fachow in the Kongmoon Vicariate, and the rest of us engaged chairs for a six-day trip to Watlam, the first of our Wuchow stations. At Watlam, we again separated, Fathers Troesch, Moore and McKeirnan and Brother Thaddeus, and also one or two Sisters, going to Wuchow. The remainder of the group, consisting of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208706, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1979", "page_number": 163, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "136\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nFathers Downs and Madison, with Sister Paul and four of her Sisters, journeyed on by bus to Liuchow, then by train to Kweilin.\n\nAt Kweilin, we met the members of the first group and here left Sister Paul and her Sisters. As it was the time of the Chinese New Year, we had to remain in Kweilin for about a week, then Fathers Downs, Siebert, Gaiero and Madison set out by train and bus on the long hike to Kaying. We reached Kaying on the 19th of February, just one month to the day after stepping aboard the steamer at Hong Kong, and just in time to attend Kaying's First Synod. From Kaying, a few hours by bus brought us to Siaoloc, where the Language School once more resumed its oft-interrupted classes, and here at Siaoloc this chronicle of the wanderings of the Stanley Maryknollers comes to a glorious end! Laus Deo!\n\n(By Father William J. Downs)\n\nPART III: FATHER MEYER ON INTERNMENT: JANUARY 12, 1942 - AUGUST 15, 1945\n\nNearly sixty priests, Brothers and Sisters were interned at Stanley in January, 1942. Within a year, all but three priests and four Sisters had left on exchange repatriation or been released into Hong Kong and gone back to their Missions. In September, 1943, occurred the last repatriation, when Father Murphy, a Canadian missioner who was ill, and the four remaining Sisters left for Canada.\n\nA special cable had come through the Swiss Consul in Tokyo, \"All Maryknollers are to leave occupied areas.\" When Father Hessler and I told Mr. Maejima, the Camp Superintendent, that we chose to stay, he seemed nonplussed. Weren't we ordered by the cable to return? We explained that in the Catholic Church such an order was always contingent on providing for the needs of souls, and that since the Italian Fathers of Hong Kong were not permitted to come into the Camp, we had volunteered already a year ago to remain.\n\nNothing more was said, but our names did not appear on the repatriation lists, and we learned later that Mr. Maejima and his colleagues of the Hong Kong Foreign Affairs Office had been impressed by the Catholic position.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216094, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-2002", "page_number": 393, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "327\n\nin China. They did not complain. In any case Government did not answer letters written to newspapers but people did not generally criticise Government. That was why, when a column called \"Tiger Talk\" was written by an English solicitor in 1962 and published in the Sunday Tiger Standard, it attracted considerable attention.\n\nThe district of West Point, where legalised brothels for Chinese had been situated up to the mid-1930s, was still an important entertainment district in the mid-1950s, with restaurants with 100 or more Chinese tables capable of seating in excess of 1,200. Sing song girls, the Chinese version of the Japanese geisha, could still be found there.\n\nMy Chinese wife, born in 1936, lived in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. After the War Canadian Sergeant Major John Osborn, who was born in Norfolk, the same county where I was born and raised in England, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. It is the most prestigious British award for gallantry on the field of battle. It was the only such award ever made in the colony.\n\nDuring the Japanese occupation my wife recalls seeing arms and legs lying in the streets first thing in the morning. Breakers of the curfew had been mauled by Japanese police dogs. Women did their best to make themselves look old, ugly and undesirable. People wandered the hillsides and seashores as hunters and gatherers looking for anything to eat. Occasionally, human flesh was on sale in butchers' shops, something sometimes denied today. As my wife's family owned a salt-fish shop they were better off than most. They had food and something to barter. My wife and her two sisters survived the occupation although their father never forgave them and his wife for not having a son to \"buy water\" for him at his funeral (Today a symbolic ceremony based on filial piety and the washing of the corpse by the eldest son.).\n\nWhen I arrived in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s conditions had already improved considerably. Although there was rationing still in Britain, you could buy just about anything in Hong Kong - provided you had the money. I stayed together with other government servants in Winner House, a small hotel at North Point, a district sometimes known as Little Shanghai. A number of Fukienese also lived there.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 } ]